


Branded

by nusantara



Category: Fire Emblem: Kakusei | Fire Emblem: Awakening
Genre: Angst and Humor, F/M, Fluff and Angst, Gen, Siblings
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-01-22
Updated: 2014-01-22
Packaged: 2018-01-09 15:26:55
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,134
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1147611
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nusantara/pseuds/nusantara
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Inigo has been told he looked a lot like his father, but it's not something easy to live up to. He asks Lucina about their father and they discuss their parents who have passed on. Chrom gave Lucina the Falchion, but all he seems to have is the Brand on his right eye.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Branded

"Lucina, what's one thing our father wasn't good at?"

He's not sure when he started being compared to his father, but it must have been when he was very young. He remembers the comments about the hair color, his face, and how they both shared a brand on the right side of their body. He remembers the time when he asked his mother why his right eye is different from his left one.

"It's your brand, Inigo, and it's the most precious gift your father gave to you." His mother smiled when she said this. "Lucina has hers on her left eye."

"Yet she has the Falchion," he complained at the time as a young boy. "Father didn't give me anything but a mark on my eye." The reaction his mother made is still crystal clear in his mind. She looked guilty, like she somehow did something wrong. 

Still, she forced a smile for him, but he could still see sadness in her. "I'm sorry, Inigo, I was greedy. After your father gave me the gift of you and your sister, he couldn't give anything else after."

His own words haunt him now, but he knows he was just a little kid back then. He didn't understand what wielding and being the owner of the Falchion meant. To him as a child, he just thought Lucina was luckier to be given something physical that had a connection to his father. He doesn't have memories of his father at all, but he seems to be the one that help people remember or become nostalgic of Chrom. 

"You don't speak of him often, Inigo." Lucina replies back to him. "But from what I remember mother telling me and my own memories…" she has to pause, thinking about it. It's easy to look at Inigo and see her father in him. They do look a lot alike, but he see traces of their mother in him more so than others do.

She recalls a peaceful time when she was still young. It was some sort of get together or maybe a party, and she remembers her father and his closer friends there. A toddler aged Inigo sat next to her, his smaller hand cradled in hers. Her father told her to watch her younger brother because that's what older siblings do. She didn't mind watching after him, but Inigo looked why he wanted to be put to bed by his mother than be around all these people.

She looked over and saw father dancing with their father. They looked so happy, and while he looked a bit stiff and unsure, her mother smiled at him, looking like she's fully in love with him. Eventually her father loosened up, but he was still a little awkward about dancing with his her. 

Robin came over and patted Chrom on the shoulder, and she can't remember what was said to her father, but it's some sort of friendly banter or joke about Olivia being a kind and patient graceful dancer because she's taught Chrom how to dance. 

"You're lucky she didn't call the marriage off when she found out you danced like a Risen." 

Lucina hears Inigo's voice, sending her back from her nostalgic memories. "Recalling all the ways our father was perfect? Can't find a single fault?" He says, and he's joking of course, but Lucina misses it.

"No, Father had his faults, and you shouldn't speak about him in that tone." She defensive, but she doesn't mean to be that defensive.

Inigo understands, but he doesn't bring it up. "You and everyone describe all the good things about him, and I can't remember him, so…" He trails off, still trying to keep the conversation from heading to something overly dark.

"It's not good to speak of the dead in such a way." 

"I'm not trying to discredit our father, don't get me wrong." He holds back saying the real reason he wants to know.

He wants to know the real man rather than just stories. He's insecure he's a prince of a fallen kingdom and his sister has dealt with the burden of the Falchion. He's been compared to his father his entire life, but he can't even compare himself to him because he can't remember anything about him. He wants to know how such a man could capture his mother's heart -- how he could make a woman like his mother feel such sadness and great joy. 

He wants to be different from him. He wants to be like him.  
He wants to help his sister and his friends. He wants to help himself.  
He wants to know the real Chrom. He wants to understand himself and what it means to be a royal prince of Ylisse. 

It all started because of the brand on his right eye.

"Dancing," she says finally. "Mother said his humor was a bit… off, but I don't remember that." 

"So he's like you, then?" He laughs as he smiles at her.

"Yes. See, both of have our faults." Inigo is the one who picked up dancing. She's assumes it's because she got the gift of wielding the Falchion, so she had to focus on that. On the other hand, Inigo grew up closer to their mother and shadowed their mother in many ways. 

"I remember our mother telling me he wasn't exactly the smoothest talking to her at first." He remembers this because she commented on him speaking to women so well and charming them while their first couple conversation together were the most awkward she probably ever had with a man. "Yet somehow his efforts were charming, and she could see that." 

She blinks a few times, a little confused. "I don't remember that, but I was never told how they met. I just knew they were very close and they could talk to each other about anything."

"It must have been after they were married."

He's good at dancing for the sake of his mother, and because he enjoys it of course. He dances to keep the memory of his mother alive, but there is more. His father couldn't dance like he could, and that makes them different. It takes him better in one thing his own father was never good at. His sense of humor has to be good, too, or he could never talk to women, so that's another thing. 

Does he want to be better than his father? No. His father is a legendary hero, and he's not sure what he wants to be, but he doesn't want to be a legend. He doesn't want Lucina to be a legend at such a young age, too. 

He just wants to be a bit more like his father. He just wants to be different compared to his father.


End file.
